Exclusively one size?

Griffins, I also find the soprano handy in say a bluegrass mixed instrument jam. I may lead with a Bari but if I'm just jammin' in and there is no mando player, the soprano makes a good substitute.
 
I wonder if this is still the case. I expect it's true of people who took up the uke a decade or two back (and earlier) and it does seem there are more entry level, budget priced sopranos than other sizes, but it seems like some people in recent years have come to uke through Iz or Jake S. and may start out on tenors (?)

Also it seems that many of the YT vids I see of really incredible, acrobatic players are playing on tenors.

Again, nothing at all wrong with that!

I just wonder if the popularity of the soprano has been superseded by larger sizes...
No, in Sweden sopranos are THE ukulele still. Anything else is a step aside from what's normal. All music stores carry some low cost sopranos, a few carry some good ones, and very few carry the other sizes at all.
 
I started out with a tenor, thought it was too big & got a soprano, which was too small, so got a concert, which seemed just right.

Spent most of my first year learning mainly on concert scale ukes of various sorts.

But then I started buying into tenor scale again - they are mainly small bodied - tenor scale soprano, tenor scale concert, & a RISA tenor Uke Ellie electric.

I do have a 20.25" baritone that I really like the sound of, but find it a bit of a stretch, & a 19.75" that seems a better fit.

However - I am still looking at those RISA steel string electric tenors - maybe one day....... :drool:
 
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I'm "exclusively two" sizes: concert and soprano. If forced to choose just one it would be concert, and I have spent long periods of time playing that exclusively, but in the end - some things work better for my small hands on soprano, so I always come back to that even though I usually prefer the sound of concert scale.
 
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"I've played a soprano and my fingers were just too squished to make a consistent clean sound. It's too small. I've played a tenor and some of the chord shapes are an uncomfortable stretch. It's verging on too big. The baritone is bigger still so I never even considered one.The concert seems just right. It's very comfortable for my left hand. To my ear, the sound of a concert is just right too. It's not too high and plinky and it's not too low to where it's getting away from a ukulele sound verging into a guitar sound."

This echos my thoughts exactly. I do play the Tiny Tenor occasionally, for lo G songs, the neck scale is problematic for me, as is the tenor scale on my Duke banjo.
 
I purposely own ukuleles in five sizes, but most of my playing is done on tenor. For pure enjoyment, I am finding myself drawn back to my Opio; and when in hostile climates (camping, traveling), I am on my Outdoor Ukulele Tenor. So 92%-95% of my playing is on a tenor, with the major exception being when I make arrangements on my computer in Notion, and then my Sopranino is at my side so I can quickly play through things without waking up the whole house (I work when everyone else goes to bed),

That said, I own 3 concert sized instruments, and when I play them, I'm pretty happy with the size, maybe happier than Tenor. It is hard as a big guy, however, to not play tenor. That makes no logical sense, but it is the truth.

That all translates to the likelihood of a purchase of a Concert Opio someday. Probably after a Spruce faced Opio Tenor and a Cedar Mainland Tenor.
 
Griffins, I also find the soprano handy in say a bluegrass mixed instrument jam. I may lead with a Bari but if I'm just jammin' in and there is no mando player, the soprano makes a good substitute.

I saw a bluegrass band a few weeks back that had, in lieu of a banjo, a cavaquinho player. That instrument is similar to uke, but usually tuned like a 5-string banjo minus the drone string.
 
I started with tenors, then gravitated to the concert. Now all my ukes are concerts. That's the best size to fit my hands and the majority of my playing (fingerstyle). I occasionally pick up one of my wife's sopranos to experience that classic percussive sound, but they're just too small.
 
I saw a bluegrass band a few weeks back that had, in lieu of a banjo, a cavaquinho player. That instrument is similar to uke, but usually tuned like a 5-string banjo minus the drone string.

Something like that or the soprano is good for cutting through all the guitars and laying down a backbeat when there is no mando doing that.

Everywhere I uke in the US, I find concert ukes to be the primary choice. I see it in the selection at music stores and in all the jams I go to (and I go to a bunch..ain't retirement great). I think it's the Goldilock thing. I think beginners are drawn to it because they want something definitively ukey but feel sopranos are too small for their hands.
 
I started on a soprano and played only that one instrument for about 6 months. It wasn't until I found this site that I discovered there were other sizes. My next purchase was a concert. I liked it because I felt it sounded better when played up the neck. I played those two sizes for about a year and then got a tenor figuring it would be even easier playing up the neck. I owned a couple and have decided that I do not get along with the tenor scale at all. My main size now is concert. It just feels and sounds "right" to me. I still do play sopranos, just not as much as concerts. I have found that if I am playing through a song on one size and get stuck, often times just switching to the other size helps me get it down.
 
But I have to admit, part of me, when playing or listening to a soprano, automatically thinks "Okay, THIS is a ukulele.".

It's true...:shaka:
 
Almost four years ago I bought a ukulele I saw in a catalogue that looked like my Fender Telecaster guitar, so I bought it just to hang it next to the guitar with no intention of playing it. A few weeks later I received a notice for a ukulele play-along and decided that since I have a uke, I'll participate, but when I tried to learn a few chords on the internet, I had a lot of difficulty getting my fingers to fit between the frets. I learned it was a soprano and immediately went out and played a concert and a tenor, the tenor was it for me.

Since then all my ukes have been tenor cutaway, I've gone through about twenty but have settled on seven. A couple years later the leader of our group asked for volunteers to play bass. I looked at what was available and found all the bass ukes, so I went for it. I'm up to fourteen bass ukes and mini bass guitars.
 
I only play tenor. My fingers are stupid because I play by shape/position.
They need everything to be in the same places or else they play wrong notes.
There's something to muscle memory that locks me into tenor scale.
A chord to me is a shape in a place. A pitch is a place on a string.
If I change scale, those places move, and I have to think about it, which detracts from playing.

Maybe it's just me. I've tried other scales... and just cant do it.
 
When I decided to start playing the ukulele I researched it on the internet and became confused. So using my own logic I decided that the Baritone was more like a four string guitar and that I wasn't interested in playing a small four string guitar, so I decided that if I got the middle sized one. So that is what I started with, and that is what I play. I did have a soprano that I won, but I gave it away. Then I won another soprano. I'm going to give it away too. If you ask my why, I will say that I don't like it. If you ask my why I don't like it, I'll tell you that I don't know.

Uhh...so, what size do you play, Rllink?
 
Only play concert now.

Just like others, started on soprano. Then found out there were other sizes, so tried and bought a concert. Heard about tenors so I bought a tenor. Found out that my fingers were too squished with the soprano. Couldn't stretch my hand enough for chords on the tenor. Gave my soprano to my daughter, the tenor to my brother. So I have now settled on the concert size and am sticking with that size. It's all about the finger feel and playing experience for me.
 
This is crazy explanation but it is mine.

I can play/practice easier on tenor or baritone (even concert somewhat) but the soprano is unwieldy.

Ergonomically (fingers, joints cramming, neck, arms, posture), musically (have to control the chirpiness of tone and flat sound of higher fret due to string gauge thickness issue at those frets), and mentally (playing on it is tiring due to limit of its space and confining) it is a high challenge and that is what intrigues me and I want to get good at it.

I'm not a strum player.
 
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I played a few of all sizes and generally like the sound of sopranos. As the bodies get bigger, they seem to lose that "ukulele" sound to me. The concert size is about as big as I'll go. After that, especially strung with a low-G, I might as well play the guitar, and I do - I have one of those Yamaha Guitaleles.

Plus, I play some parts that would require some finger stretching on anything bigger than a soprano, so soprano it is.

So I'm pretty much exclusively a soprano player because of the sound and what the shorter scale allows me.
 
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Anything bigger than a soprano just isn't a "ukulele" in my mind. I've tried tenor and concert, but felt like a traitor playing them. I sometimes play a sopranino just for some variety, or if it's easier to pick than up than transpose up a tone or two.

Another problem I have with concert and tenor is you can't readily tune them to ADF#B which is, of course, the only true tuning for ukulele. ;)
 
To the people that think a soprano is too small , try a soprano with a wide nut , Martins do it for me.
I have a nice Ohana which I almost never play because of the narrow nut. I can see how people are turned off to sopranos because of the narrow nut on most imported ukes.
 
To the people that think a soprano is too small , try a soprano with a wide nut , Martins do it for me.
I have a nice Ohana which I almost never play because of the narrow nut. I can see how people are turned off to sopranos because of the narrow nut on most imported ukes.

Do you know if the Martin OXK has the wider nut? I've been interested in those but they are somewhat out of my price range.
 
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